An important advantage of disk drive technology is high storage capacity at relatively lower cost compared to flash memory. In addition to areal density, increases in linear density for a given revolution per minute (rpm) and form factor of drive increase the maximum data rate. Server applications where access to large amounts of mission critical data is essential also require high data rates. High data rates can be important for both conventional and electrically assisted magnetic recording (EAMR) recording technology. Innovations in head design, coil design and magnetic materials are necessary to achieve high data rates.
Coil designs in particular can be important for achieving high data rates. Coil designs for writers can be used in both conventional perpendicular and EAMR heads. For high data rate recording in the gigahertz (GHz) range, it can be important to optimize the electrical path and connections from the preamplifier to the write coil. Historically, the majority of work in this area has been focused on the interconnect design with little attention paid to the electrical design inside the slider.